


Old Dogs, New Tricks

by Pollydoodles



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-05-24 22:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6168244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollydoodles/pseuds/Pollydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spotting a loophole, a flaw in their logic and ruthlessly exploiting it, Bucky enthusiastically signs up for a senior citizenship offered by Stark Industries science division. Steve has little option but to sign up with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Steve Rogers

“You’re my intern?” 

He shuffled from one foot to the other and smiled down at her, one side of his mouth curling up and giving him an off-key grin as he loomed over her.

“Uh, yeah.” He answered. 

“It’s supposed to be for old people.” She said suspiciously. 

“Technically, I’m 95.” He answered, with a shrug. 

“Technically, you’re Captain America.” Jane said flatly, shoving her hands into her lab coat pockets for want of anything better to do with them. She wanted, really, to run them through her hair and sigh in exasperation, but she was too polite for that. Too professional. 

“Do you… Do you know anything about astro-physics?” She said dubiously, peering up at him. 

“Um.” He said, one hand reached up to massage the back of his neck, a somewhat guilty look on his face and his eyes crinkling as he gazed back at her. Jane sighed. 

“I can lift stuff?” He offered, and Jane dropped herself onto a stool and hid her head in her hands. 

“Why are you even here, Steve?” She asked, her voice muffled behind her palms. 

“Well-” He said, glancing at the door. “This programme… You’re not the only Stark Industries scientist involved in it.” Jane, her hands dropping from her face, blinked up at him, not quite following. “Tony’s doing it as well.”

“And?” She said, shrugging. 

“Bucky really likes science.”

Her jaw dropped slightly. “They wouldn’t. They haven’t? Surely they’d know not to pair up-”

Steve shook his head sadly. 

“So you’re here for-”

“Damage control.”


	2. Bucky Barnes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony forgets an important conversation, Pepper is exasperated and Bucky is more modern than you'd guess.

“We’re doing a what for whats?”

Pepper sighed. “Tony, we talked about this-“

“I don’t believe we did.”

“-at length, Tony.” She said, fixing him with a look. 

“No, definitely not. I would absolutely have remembered a conversation where I agreed that a formerly brain-washed ex-soviet assassin would bring me coffee every morning and hand me wrenches when I asked for them. No offence.”

This last he directed at Bucky, who was stood across from them, arms folded across his chest and waiting patiently for the two to finish. Pepper closed her eyes briefly at Tony’s speech and then threw Bucky a consolatory look. 

“None taken.” He said, blue eyes taking in the man in front of him. 

Stark sighed. “Look, do you even know what electricity is? I mean, how old are you? Cap seems to have trouble, I’m guessing because everything ran on steam-power back in your day?” Bucky raised an eyebrow. Pepper put her head in her hands. 

“Tony, I swear-“ She began, but was interrupted by Bucky. 

“Well gee, now you mention it, I do remember the invention of electricity.” Bucky paused and fixed Stark with an innocent look before continuing. “So much better than living in caves and having dinosaurs fetch the mail.” 

Stark paused and narrowed his eyes at Bucky. Pointing a finger towards the other man’s chest, his mouth opened once or twice before he managed to speak. “Did you just sass me with a Flintstones reference?”

Bucky said nothing but regarded him impassively.  
Stark stared back.  
Pepper held her breath. 

“Okay he can stay.” Stark spun on his heel and began stripping off his shirt until he was in just his undershirt. Bucky received a t-shirt to the face. “Put this on, Barnes, things are about to get oily.”


	3. Coffee Run

“Can I help?” Steve said, towering over Jane as he spoke. It had to be the fifteenth time that morning he’d asked the same damned question. She tried to keep her sigh to herself, knowing that he was really trying, stuck in a scenario that made no sense to him at all. His shadow loomed over her and she edged away from him slightly. 

“Uh…” She said, stalling for time. “Maybe you could fetch a coffee?” She felt bad for suggesting it, this was Captain America after all. He’d fought for her freedom fifty years before she’d even been born, and here she was asking him to go get her a latte. It felt kind of perverse, like her grade school history teacher would be winding up to throw the textbook at her head for even letting the words cross her mind. 

Steve however, brightened up like a lightbulb with a current passing through it. “I can do that. I can absolutely do that. Wait here.” He almost had her chair over in his haste to leave the lab, and she couldn’t be sure whether it was because he was excited to finally have a task to complete for her or whether he was just leaping at the opportunity to leave the lab. 

The door swung shut hard and she allowed herself a sigh of relief. 

It swung back open again seconds later and his worried face met hers. “Ah, sorry, Dr. Foster, I just realised – you didn’t say what type of coffee you wanted?”

“Just – just surprise me, Steve. It’s fine, however it comes. Promise” She said, nodding at him encouragingly. Can’t be worse than anything Darcy’s rustled up before, she thought to herself. He gave her a nod, still looking anxious, and the door closed again, this time with more consideration for the sheet glass in the windowpane. 

“Oh god.” She groaned, putting her face in her hands. 

*****

“Where’s the goddamned wrench?” Stark swore, not entirely under his breath, voice grumbling from underneath the car. There was a clanging sound as he fumbled around, picking up tool after tool and throwing them back to the floor, not finding what he wanted. 

Bucky bent down, balancing easily on his heels, and peered under the car. “You okay in there, baby Stark?” 

“I’m fine.” Came the snapped reply. “And don’t call me that.”

“Just as soon as you quit callin’ me Robocop, kid.” 

There was a squeak of wheels and Tony came shooting out from under the car towards Barnes, lying flat on the creeper and scowling up at him. There was a large grease smear across his cheek, and his usually carefully sculpted hair was dripping with sweat. Barnes grinned. 

“You can’t call me kid.” Stark grumbled. 

Bucky made a buzzing sound he’d learned from Foster’s intern and grinned wider. “I was born fifty-three years before you were even a twinkle in the old man’s eye. Count ‘em.” With that, he stood up and in the same movement put one foot down heavily on the edge of the creeper nearest to him, catapulting Stark out of it neatly. “You gonna let me look at this heap o’ junk or what?”

“It’s not a-“ Stark broke off, looking up into the smirking blue eyes of his newest intern and sighed. He jerked a finger into the centre of the other man’s chest, and wasn’t surprised in the slightest to see that he didn’t move at all. “I know what you’re doing Barnes. Fine. You think you can do better? Get your ass under there.” 

“Thought you’d never ask.” Bucky shot back, and dropped onto the creeper in one smooth move and pulled himself under the car. He grunted to himself, and Stark leaned back on his heel, almost afraid to look under the car. There was a squeaking sound, and then a loud clang as something metal and large hit the floor and bounced. Stark jumped back as the catalytic converter flew out from under the car, shortly followed by a greasy looking super soldier. 

“What the hell have you done to my car?” He yelped, picking up the hunk of metal and shooting Bucky a hard look as the other man sat up on the creeper, leaning back against the side of the car and running a hand through his shaggy hair. 

“Wanted it off, didn’t you?” He shrugged, and flexed the fingers on his metal hand, suspiciously oiler than they’d been before he’d scooted under the car. Stark clutched the metal to his chest. Barnes rolled his shoulders back and yawned. “Y’know, I could really do with a coffee right about now.”


	4. Driving Me Nuts

“He’s driving me nuts!”

Pepper sighed as both Jane and Tony stared back at her from the other side of her desk, their words ringing in tandem. She stole a glance at the mounting emails shooting into her inbox at an alarming rate, and reluctantly looked back at her boyfriend and his best scientist. 

Neither of whom looked particularly happy. 

“I can’t drink another cup of coffee, Miss Potts.” Jane implored, hanging across the desk, her long brunette hair in disarray, accidentally knocking aside a framed photo of Tony smiling brightly in a rare-unguarded moment. “It’s all I can trust him to do, he makes a terrible latte and I’m pretty sure the caffeine intake is messing with my insides now.”

Pepper righted the photo frame silently.

“Wait, wait – back up a moment there short-stack – he gets you coffee?” Tony reeled back, offended. “Barnes makes me get his, for god’s sake.”

“Yes.” Hissed Jane. “All the coffee. So. Much. Coffee.” She turned back to Pepper, hazel eyes blown wide. “I’m surprised there’s any coffee left for anyone else.” Pepper tugged a tissue from the floral painted box to her left and handed it across to the petite woman. Jane took it gratefully, but instead of using it began twisting it between her hands and pulling bits of it apart. Pepper tried not to wince as small tufts of tissue floated across her desk. 

“He makes me get his goddamned coffee.” Tony mumbled to himself, and Pepper shook her head at him, turning back to the little scientist shredding tissue like it was an Olympic sport and she was going for the gold. 

“He broke my best microscope.” Jane continued, ignoring Stark. She held her hands up, what was left of the twisted and torn tissue held between delicate fingers. “I know he didn’t mean to, but he’s just too big to be in a laboratory. He doesn’t know his own strength, it’s like having an overgrown five-year old in there.” Her wide brown eyes were beseeching, and Pepper was reminded forcefully of Barton’s dog as it snuck under the breakfast table and nudged its wet nose against her bare legs looking for scraps.

“He broke my favourite blow torch,” Stark said plaintively. “And he did it on purpose.”

Pepper rolled her eyes at the dark-haired man who was now sitting on the edge of her desk, and gave a conciliatory glance at the stressed-out looking brunette to her left. She stood, pushing back her leather chair carefully and smoothing her skirt as she rose. “Dr. Foster, I’m sure a woman of your intelligence can find something to do with Rogers for the next five weeks. Tony, if you stopped provoking Barnes, he’d stop breaking your toys.”

“Pep-“

“Ms. Potts-“

There was a tentative knock at the door, and Pepper looked over to it grateful for the interruption. Dr. Banner stood in the doorway, hand raised still, inches from the polished mahogany and looking nervous. His free hand twisted the hem of his lab coat as he looked askance at her. Pepper gestured to him to enter the room and he edged his way in, shoulders hunched and an apologetic look on his face. 

“I, uh, I didn’t mean to-“ He waved his hands between Pepper and the other two. 

“Not at all, Dr. Banner. Dr. Foster and Tony were just leaving.” Pepper said firmly. 

“We were?” Tony said. 

“You were.” She answered, giving him a slight push. 

*****

“He’s driving me nuts, Steve.”

“Well,” the other man said hopefully. “You could always-“

“M’not quittin’.” 

Steve sighed. This was the Bucky he remembered. Stubborn. It was a miracle they’d ever gotten along in the first place. The dark-haired man leaned against the corridor wall and sucked thoughtfully at his coffee cup, scowling into it as his hair hung across his face. 

“What’s Foster workin’ on, anyway?”

Steve shrugged. He had no idea what Jane might be working on, other than what he’d picked up from Darcy which was, to a word, stars. He always seemed to be on a coffee run when Jane was doing anything that might be considered interesting, but then it wasn’t as though he’d understand it anyway. 

“You’re hopeless, Rogers.”

*****

“Ms. Potts, the thing is… It’s just…” Banner stammered slightly, still hovering a foot from the doorway of her office and fiddling with the hem of his lab coat. Pepper gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile, with one eye firmly on the ticking clock and the alert that had popped up on her computer screen regarding a meeting she was late in attending. 

“Do go on, Dr. Banner.” She said smoothly, rising from her chair and moving toward him. The scientist took a deep breath. 

“It’s Thor. I know the intern program is for older people but-”

“Just deal with him, Dr. Banner.” Pepper said firmly, and left the room.


End file.
